The last time I was at a dance performance was back in the fourth grade, when my teacher took our class to the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater to watch some sort of flamenco/tap dance. All I remembered was that it was a lot of clicks and taps, created by the castanets and the tap shoes.
I experienced this for the second time at the New York City Center when the Dorrance Dance company went up to perform Myelination. It was extremely captivating – the outfits, the stage setups, and the harmony of so many people. I find the last part super fascinating because I find it hard to get in sync with someone else, much less a dozen other people (granted… yes, they are dancers but I feel like tapping in sync with a dozen other people is something that is still incredibly hard to do).
At the start of the night, I was looking forward to the tap dance. While ballet is an incredible form of dance, it was not doing much for me; Polyphonia was interesting at some points, but I found myself becoming bored after a while. Vincent Mantsoe’s GULA was interesting to say the least. It started off hauntingly spooky – a dark background and fog coming onto the stage. When he first came on stage, I was confused. He was chirping and fluttering his “wings” but when the dance began, I could see a story forming.
While the focus was obviously on the dancers, I took an appreciation to the dark background and the lighting. I don’t know if it’s because my eyes were getting tired by the end of the night, but I swore that the contrast of Mantsoe’s bright pants and his skin against the light made everything stand out more. Every time Mantsoe moved, it was as if there was a hologram/lag behind them, and that made everything so much more captivating.
When Myelination came on, I was excited. While there was no background for the first dance, you could get the impression that it was a workplace kind of setting from the way everyone was dressed – the business casual attires. One of the most interesting sets from Myelination was the part when the stage went red. I was freaked out, especially when the tall dancer went to join the band with an electric guitar. Weird much?! Then came the dancer that was pretty much writhing on the floor. The whole scene gave off an eerie and spooky vibe, and frankly, it made me think it was a scene straight from Hell.
Overall, it was really interesting to go to a dance performance since I haven’t been to one in a long time. It was also interesting to see post-modern dance in action. You can tell it was post-modern through the wild, eccentric movements of the dancers, and the stories the dances tell; you can also tell it was post-modern through the choice of music – something brash and not soothing for the ears, which is what usually comes along with dance. Through this experience, I was really able to learn what post-modern dance was.
